The Importance of Change

On February 22nd, Father Tom Lucas, came to Loyola College to discuss his ideas on collaborating the Eastern culture and the Western culture, in the St. Ignatius Cathedral in Shanghai, China. His talk parallels with Julia Alvarez’s “Queens,” in that they both are faced with a new decision, a new setting, and a new culture. Father Tom Lucas is creating the stained glass designs for the church in order to make it feel more like the Chinese culture, while also including the true religious aspects of the Christian past. Father Tom Lucas is the professor of art and design at University of San Francisco and he has a doctorate in theology. He directed and redesigned St. Ignatius Cathedral, and he gracefully wrote Land marking: City Church and Urban Strategizing. He is now working on a project in Shanghai, China; he is coordinating the stained glass design at St. Ignatius Cathedral. The moral of his project is closely related to the moral of “Queens” by Julia Alvarez.
In “Queens” the speaker talks about her immigration to America and the difficulties of adapting to the American culture. Alvarez writes about how moving to America was such a huge change from her homeland of the Dominican Republic. This idea relates to the lecture by Father Tom Lucas, in that, he was also adapting to change and working with change; he knew that he had to change the culture of the cathedral so that the Chinese would feel more comfortable. There a vast history of China; their culture and background is very particular; one symbol in particular was the rose. It first began in Eastern Asia with a thorn bush that spread through attracting people’s attention and cross-breeding into China and eventually spreading into Turkey.
One thing that Alvarez talks about in “Queens” is that she has to deal with the many different cultures around her and somehow intertwine with them to make one. This relates to the hybridization that Father Tom Lucas used to blend the Chinese culture with the symbols of Christianity. Father Tom Lucas took the Chinese symbol of the rose to create his stained glass masterpieces. He went on to say that the hybridization of the rose began in the West. Hybridization is neither all good nor all bad; it is how nature and we as human beings do our business; the moral of such a process is how tings change.
The one thing that Father Tom Lucas wanted to focus on in this cathedral was the pictures and images, since they are known to give us that feeling of beauty within the artwork. Matteo Ricci was the mastermind behind having the west move into China; he worked on adapting Christianity with local cultures and people.
One of the main questions of the time for St. Ignatius Cathedral was to restore or to renovate? This question parallels with “Queens;” it makes Julia Alvarez ask herself, “Do I blend in and maintain my culture past or do I change it to adapt to this cruel new setting? While Alvarez decided to keep her cultural background, Father Tom Lucas decided it would be best to renovate the cathedral. Originally the cathedral was all French Catholicism with no Chinese culture. Jesus had red hair and Mary had blonde hair which showed that there was no Chinese culture. They decided to renovate and add the Chinese culture; a new hybrid of Catholicism and Chinese culture today. They were trying to relate the gospel with Chinese customs and symbols. The St. Ignatius Cathedral is coming along very well and the glass windows are still being put in; Father Tom Lucas occasionally goes over to Shanghai to check up on his masterpiece. The moral of the talk and of the poem is that things change and we must adapt to those changes in culture and in life; and we shall not cease from exploration. In “Queens” Alvarez is able to handle the culture shock that she experiences and make the best of it; while Father Tom Lucas is also able to make the best of the cathedral by combining the Christian faith with the symbols and culture of the Chinese. Both were able to adapt to change and accept the new hybrid that was produced from intertwining of the cultures and images.